ENTtoday: February 2007

Features

How much stock should otolaryngologists put into the parental interpretations of their child’s complaints? According to Ellen M. Friedman, MD, an otolaryngologist in Houston, parental descriptions are an important part of patient histories, but you still need to perform objective measures.

Microdebrider surgery, a technology with its roots in the rotary vacuum shaver introduced by Urban in 1968 for removal of acoustic neuromas, is now being successfully utilized for many different types of procedures.

Smaller incisions, fewer complications, and a speedy return home are a few of the advantages otolaryngologists can offer by managing their patients on an outpatient basis or using minimally invasive surgical techniques.

Not long ago, physicians routinely decried evidence-based medicine (EBM) as an encroachment on their professional autonomy, a barrier to good patient care, insensitive to health care’s growing complexity, and at odds with the transcendent value of the physician-patient relationship.

A new era in efforts to treat patients with tissue loss or organ failure is under way, which has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of many diseases and conditions that otolaryngologists treat.